The Boys, Season One
Released in July of 2019 and based on the comic book series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys came onto the scene and took everyone by surprise. After decades of competing Summer blockbusters and perhaps too many spinoff shows from Marvel and DC, the world seemed sick of superheroes. So this might have been the best time to introduce a world where the superheroes are the worst people one could imagine.
With season four airing now, we’re going to talk today about season one for anyone who’s never had the dubious pleasure of watching it. And just in case you’re completely unfamiliar with the series, all the trigger warnings apply.
The story
Hughie Campbell lives in a world where superheroes are real. He is even a fan of superheroes. But he is not one of them. He’s a normal guy, working at an A/V store. And he has a beautiful girlfriend named Robin. Hughie is about to ask Robin to move in with him when she takes just one step off the curb into the street. She steps right into the path of one of the city’s superheroes, a speedster named A-Train. A-Train runs into her full force, essentially dissolving her right in front of Hughie’s eyes. He’s literally left holding her dismembered hands.
The superheroes are represented and, as we find out, controlled by a company named Vought. They offer Hughie a settlement for Robin’s death. But money isn’t what he wants. He wants justice. He wants accountability. But of course, that’s the last thing he’s going to get.
What he gets instead is a visit from a man named Billy Butcher. Butcher has just one mission in his life, and that’s to get vengeance on America’s favorite superhero, Homelander. What he wants vengeance for is something better experienced in the show.
While seeking to bring Vought and their killer superheroes to justice, Hughie meets a beautiful girl named Annie. She just happens to be the newest member of the superhero team The Seven. And her initiation was, well, distasteful.
Together the two of them realize that the world of superheroes is far darker than either of them realized. And there’s no backing out for either of them.
What worked
The first thing I have to talk about is the gore factor this season. From the first episode to the last, there is blood by the buckets. If you’re a big gore aficionado, you will be impressed by this season. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone run so hard that they literally explode. And that’s in just the first few minutes. The effects all look gut-churning good. It’s both upsetting and really fun to watch.
But all the gore in the world can’t take away from the real dark themes The Boys explore. People are hurt, both physically and emotionally. And we see their scars. We see two people, Annie and Hughie, come into this world that they knew almost nothing about before. We see both of them have their innocence and moralities challenged over and over. They meet these challenges with varying degrees of success. Annie fights against the over commercialization of the whole thing, even after being expected to shut up and get over being sexually assaulted. Hughie suffers the loss of his girlfriend, who was maybe about to be his fiance. He struggles not to become what he sees in Butcher, even as he’s tempted.
Then, of course, there’s the way The Boys handles patriotism and religion. If the show has a theme, it’s that these two sacred features of American life are often a hollow lie. Homelander is the All-American hero, a clear reference to Captain America and Superman. He loudly pretends to represent everything America should represent while exhibiting morals most of us would consider unthinkable.
The Capes for Christ events show the hypocrisy of American religion, which seems less concerned with helping the faithful get closer to God and more concerned with helping powerful monsters steal people’s money and innocence. Without, of course, any repercussion.
It’s scary because it’s almost too close to real to be satire. It’s scary because it feels like it could almost be true.
The Boys is not a series you can jump into partway through. So if you haven’t seen season one yet, get on it. We’ll be talking about season two very soon.
(5 / 5)
Season four of Amazon Prime’s The Boys launched on June 13th of this year. Having now watched the first episode, I believe I can safely say that this season is going to be bonkers.
Let’s discuss.
The story
When this episode begins, things aren’t going great for Homelander. He’s irritated at everyone around him for constantly agreeing with everything he says. He found a gray hair and is finally facing his own mortality. Oh, and he’s on trial for murdering a man last season.
Homelander decides he needs someone around him who will tell him the truth. Someone who can help him build a legacy. So he seeks out a sup named Sage, whose superpower is being the smartest person in the world. And what does he want with Sage? He wants her to help him destroy America.
Meanwhile, The Boys aren’t doing so well. They’ve been tasked with assassinating Neuman because she is the presumptive VP. But Neuman manages to avoid their assassination attempt by being literally bulletproof.
Unfortunately, The Boys aren’t bulletproof. And as we find out in this episode, one might not last much longer.
What worked
In fiction as in life, it is the little things that matter. It’s the small details that make the difference between a fine show and an exceptional one. This episode was full of such little details. One such detail was Homelander finding gray pubic hairs.
The reason why this distinction is important is because later in the episode we find out that his stylist has been dying his hair. She’s been intentionally hiding the fact that he’s going gray. This is important because it’s just one more person in Homelander’s life who is being dishonest with him. And I think that is what’s going to finally crack him.
The timing of this season is something I’d like to shed some light on. It is so fitting that this came out during an election year. Because of course, The Boys is mimicking the very real infighting we’re experiencing in America. We’ve all seen protests break out into violence. We’ve all seen important trials spark controversy. This is just so much like our real experience, except that in The Boys, the megalomaniac blond man baby is competent and good at things.
Finally, I was amused and impressed with the evolution of Neuman’s character. She is a politician, through and through. The way she can smile at someone while threatening them, and then make a pithy quip at their expense is fantastic. She made me laugh almost every time she was on screen.
What didn’t work
If I have one complaint about this episode, it’s that a lot happened in this episode. We have a whole bunch of plotlines going on here. Like, so many things. Butcher’s health, Homelander’s aging, Ryan’s future, Frenchie’s new boyfriend, Annie’s charity, Sage’s plotting, Butcher’s old friend, A-Train and The Deep growing discontent. And I’m sure I’m forgetting a few. This is just a lot to keep track of. And I just hope they have enough time and space to do them all justice.
Overall, I have high hopes for this season. And Amazon must too, because it appears that season five is already in the works. But for now, we’ll be back very soon to discuss episode two of The Boys.
(4 / 5)
By the way, if you like my writing you can get my short story, Man In The Woods, on Smashwords and Amazon.
Computers are all the rage. Of course, you already knew that. But did you know that scientists, those denizens of deep throaty maniacal laughter and storms brewing over dark brooding castles, are building tiny brain computers now? So apparently this is what all the zombies are being used for… They’re the lackeys getting the goods. No surprise there, though, zombies do make good lackeys.
16 Mini Brains
It’s catchy. Like a jingle. And those sixteen mini brains are getting all sorts of attention nowadays. Apparently they’re all over social media. We don’t know what truths they think they’ll find there, but it has been said they do like to play Pong, so maybe some of those other kind of mindless clicker games will have similar appeal. Anyway, we’ve caught a rare glimpse of these little items of incidental intellect, through our prompting of the NightCafe AI art generator. And they’re kinda cute. See these renditions of the tiny brain computers for yourself.
Mushrooming Mayhem
It’s not just tiny brain computers though. Those sneaky scientists have also been experimenting with mycelium, harnessing the fungal power of mushrooms to make mental machine magic. Or create computer craft as it were. So what happens when the tiny brain computers and the mushroom computers start talking? Well, we aren’t sure, but we suspect the manifesting motherboard mushroom man would know. You’ll have to ask him. We hear he’s a fun guy.
So What Do the Ethicists Think About All This?
I have to admit, I don’t know any ethicists to ask about the topic, but that career path sure beats archaeology. All we know is that the scientists are at it again, and they haven’t had the best track record for working with ethicists, though morality has been a kind of touch and go subject through the course of human history anyway.
And the whole idea has been a big influence on AI generated art, with all sorts of people prompting all kinds of crazy combinations of computer creatures crawling with creepiness into the realms of dystopian nightmare. In fact, more of these stories seem to be illustrated using AI art generation than including actual images of the real life results, perhaps because the reality is that petri dishes of cells and fungal fragments really aren’t that interesting visually, just kind of snotty looking kin to the Blob…
Movies n TV
Howling VI: The Freaks, a Film Review
Howling VI: The Freaks (1991) is a supernatural horror directed by Hope Perello, starring Brendan Huges, Brace Payne and Michele Matheson.
Howling VI: The Freaks (1991) is a supernatural horror directed by Hope Perello. This R-rated film stars Brendan Huges, Brace Payne, Michele Matheson, Jered Barclay, and Gary Cervantes. As of this review, Howling VI: The Freaks remains available to Amazon Prime and fuboTV subscribers.
A drifter (Brendan Hughes) finds himself in a small town, quickly making himself useful despite the town’s hesitance. When a circus rolls into town, the drifter acts strangely, revealing a mysterious history with the owner (Bruce Payne). As tension builds, his secrets become exposed one by one. But he’s not the only one with dangerous secrets.
What I Like about Howling VI: The Freaks
Howling VI: The Freaks takes some notes from the novel, The Howling III: Echoes. It claims to take inspiration from all three, though that remains a loose concept. Still, it’s the only entry that pulls anything from the third novel.
Bruce Payne’s R.B. Harker remains a stand-out villain in the whole series. While that has never been the focus of the series, he’s easily the best part of the film. While the role is far from a revolutionary villain, Payne gets the most to work with and chews every scene.
Howling VI: The Freaks evokes a campy horror with comedic elements. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s funny or haunting, but it’s certainly a watchable B-horror that balances these elements.
Much like Howling V: The Rebirth, Howling VI: The Freaks provides a strong episode of a horror chronology in both cinematography and acting. While that’s far from a negative, I will say it doesn’t exactly earn its runtime.
Tired Tropes and Triggers
As the name and concept suggest, this film delves into the freak show attraction. However, the owner remains the film’s antagonist, abusing his power without any hint of complexity. Despite this, most performers are willing participants in their master’s schemes, which doesn’t allow much room for complexity.
As the above point suggests, there are roots of ableism within the film. This criticism remains evident in both the good and bad characters alike, with no clear point or message to either perspective aside from the villains being more manipulative.
A character can be viewed as a transphobic or perhaps intersexual caricature. It’s not my place to comment too far on this representation other than to point out that this character remains shallow and one note. However, if the intention is an intersexual person, then there’s certainly a lack of research or care put into accuracy. No, it’s not surprising, but it remains worthy of mention regardless.
What I Dislike about Howling VI: The Freaks
Frankly, I struggle to understand how this earns an R-rating. One instance of nudity and some foul language likely meets the threshold but hardly deserves the limitations that come with an R-rating. Removing those scenes or playing further into that R-rating instead of keeping this final cut seems more effective, but that’s not the film we have.
As mentioned earlier, the film doesn’t earn its runtime, throwing in a montage that ruins the tone. Unnecessary drama and absurd character decisions artificially add to this runtime problem. Poor writing and character development amplify this problem further, making it a struggle to care.
Final Thoughts
Howling VI: The Freaks doesn’t deliver much worthy of mentioning but remains a watchable B-horror. If a viewer has already invested so far into the series, this film hardly merits the worst rating. The villain alone deserves a mention for the flare matched only by Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf. I only recommend managing your expectations with the limitations provided above for a better viewing experience.
(2.5 / 5)
